‘A friend of mine invited me to
her sister’s wedding, Akello was getting married to Mwangi, the wedding was
held at some leafy suburbs in the outskirts of ‘the green city in the sun’. The
celebration went on as planned; the vows were taken by both parties as
expected, then came the photo session which ushered in the reception. This is
where hell broke loose ; the bride groom’s father upon being called to say a
word or two uttered something that can be loosely translated to mean all people
from Akello’s tribe are ‘fools’ who did not know what they wanted nor how to get
it, except for his ‘in-laws’ . He used the recently completed elections as a
base for his argument. What followed is that the other tribe got very agitated;
the bridegroom’s father didn’t finish his speech before he was attacked by his
‘rivals’ while on the podium. The wedding did not continue, instead, the
bride’s parents left with their daughter (the bride).’
The incidence shows us how
sensitive we all are to tribal sentiments. It’s funny how cheap politics can
divide the whole country along tribal lines. To my amazement, a lot of youths
embrace the vice. If anyone is to fight this vice, then that should be the
youth. We, the youth, have been brought up not as tribal belongings but as a
large family. In fact, some of those rivaling along tribal line barely know
their native languages.
We are all brothers and sisters
in this beautiful nation, Wambui’ and Ahmed have schooled together, stolen
pencils that belonged to Cheptoo and Mutisya, their rubbers had no tribal tags
either. We all grew up in the same surroundings both at school and at home,
there were no outright tribal divisions. We played hide and seek together, we
should all, thus, run away from our tribal cocoons so as be the first ones to
hit the “tipo’. The plays were
enchanting; they taught us that life was a big play best enjoyed when done
together.
Life made sense then, so should
it now. We should not allow ourselves to be divided along tribal lines. We
should not judge each other based on where one is from but love each other for
who they are. This will not only promote peace, love and unity in our country
but will also go a long way in promoting our economy.
Tribalism (read negative tribalism)
has become a habit that should be done away with lest it shapes our collective
destiny. We have always shown solidarity in times of calamity, a recent example
was participating in donation of blood for the West-gate victims; we didn’t mind
which tribe may be infused with our blood, why should it not remain this way
always? Let us stop posting those tribal messages on social media; we could be
determining the grooves into which time will wear us. We should not be our
tribes.
Mokaya Sarah
Finance Major
University of Nairobi
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